American Involvement,

January 1941,

Field Marshall Sir Harold Alexander is appointed
Commander of the British I Corps, Burma.

Like the Churchill-I, the IV had the ability to cross very wide
trenches and shell craters. It had also a redesigned turret of cast armor
combined with welded armor plate. This tank carried the 61b anti-tank gun
and good enough to deal with Pz III-series used by the Germans.

The Lend-Lease bill is introduced in the U.S. Congress.
Heavy German attacks by dive-bombers on British convoys to Malta (in Sicilian channel) results in
loss of 'Southampton' and damage to 'Illustrious'.

20 January 1941,

(till 18 May). After successfull fight in North-Africa,
British troops were sent to East-Africa with Indian and South Afican (from Kenya)
forces invade Abessinie, Eritrea and Somaliland and dislodge the Italians.

Battle of Beda Fomm
The Battle of Beda Fomm was a catastrophic Italian defeat at the hands of the British
during the North African Campaign.
The battle took place near Beda Fomm, 190 km south of Benghazi
on the Libyan coast road. Elements of the British 7th Armoured Division had cut across
the desert and set up a road block in which the retreating 10th Italian Army was ambushed.
Over 25.000 prisoners, 100 tanks, 216 guns, and 1.500 other vehicles were captured.
Although the Allied force now lacks serviceable vehicles and has suffered 555 dead and 1.400 wounded,
its modest numbers have decimated an Italian group 5 times larger.

Scharnhorst and Gneisenau get among a dispersed convoy and sink 5 ships. The German ships refuel at sea and move south-east to
the coast of West Africa.

1 March 1941,

Nazi extermination camps begin full operation. These
include Auschwitz, Bamberg, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Chelmno,
Jena, Sobibor and Treblinka. Over 2.600.000 Polish Jews are among
those killed during the course of the war. Over 12.000 people would
be killed daily at Auschwitz alone. By 1945 nearly 6 million Jews and
more than 3 million Communists, gypsies, socialists and other dissidents
will be exterminated.

Concentration camps fell into varous categories. There were death or extermination camps,
where the inmates were slaughtered on arrival or soon afterwards. There were labour camps,
where they were fed the minimum and worked to death; and experimental camps where 'scientific' and 'medical'
experiments were carried out on the hapless prisoners. There were sick camps for those who were to die
when the guards decided and not before, and training camps where the SS passed on the techniques
of brutality and mass murder. There were even recuperation camps, where Jews were kept in case they
were needed as hostages or for exchange or sale.

1 March 1941,

Bulgaria joins the Axis Tripartite Pact.

7 March 1941,

The German U-Boat U47, which sank the British Royal
Navy battleship HMS Royal Oak, is sunk by allied destroyers, with its
entire crew aboard.

The meaning of the Lend-Lease Act for British Commenwealth in
comparison with the total United States production in percentage.

(first 1/2 year)

1942

1943

1944

1945

Planes and outfit

12,4

11,9

13,5

11,8

Ships, outfit and spare

5,5

11,8

6,7

5,4

Artillery and munitions

10,4

10,0

8,8

4,6

Crafts and outfit

9,8

26,7

29,4

12,1

Others munitions

1,4

3,4

9,9

5,5

Provisions

4,3

4,4

5,4

3,9

Agricultural products

4,3

5,6

4,4

5,0

Metals

3,9

4,2

3,4

3,5

Machines

2,6

5,7

7,1

4,2

Other products

0,7

0,6

1,1

0,7

25 March 1941,

Yugoslavia joins the Axis Tripartite Pact.
The Ultra codebreakers at Bletchley Park have deciphered details of a planned Italian naval operation in the northern Mediterranean.
Ultra British intelligence operation that cracked the German secret code during World War II. The collection phase of Ultra consisted of intercepting German radio messages (which had been encrypted by their Enigma machines) and passing them through a secret computerlike device that rendered them into clear German. The intelligence gathered was passed on to Allied officials for utilization on the battlefield.
The human cost of keeping the Ultra decoding secret was more than 500 dead and 865 injured.

A military coup in Yugoslavia over throws Paul, Regent of
Yugoslavia and replaces him with King Peter II.

28 March 1941,

Italian Navy ships attacks British convoys to Greece.
British Royal Navy ships defeat the Italian Navy at Cape
Matapan, the Mediterranean.

30 March 1941,

(till 30 may) The German Africa Corps (Rommel) launches a
counteroffensive at El-Agheila in the Cyrenaica (Libya) against
British forces in Egypt.
All German and Italian merchantman-ships seized in the USA.

Addis Abeda (Ethiopia) capture by the British, a month later
Emperor Haile Selassi returnes to his city.
Coup d'état in Irak: man in Power is General Rasch Ali
Gailani; anti-British, pro-As.

6 April 1941,

"Operation Marita" the Balkan States campaign: Germany invades Yugoslavia
(till 17 April) and Greece (till 30 April).
Italian troops to from Albania.
Molotov Cocktail: A simple petrol bomb reputedly used by partisans
against German forces in Russia and the Balkans, named after Vyacheslav Molotov.

German troops making their way through Yugoslavia after the German invasion.

Relative strenght at the begin of the Balkan states campaign
(Yugoslavia and Greece).

(till 9 May).
The greatest RAF Air attacks on Germany: total 359 bombers,
of which 317 to Hamburg and Bremen.
The career of the most successful German raider Pinguin comes to an end near the Seychelles
when she is sunk by fire from the heavy cruiser HMS Cornwall. The raider has sunk or captured 32 ships.
The Mediterranean convoys come under air attack and engage the Italian aîrcraft.

9 May 1941,

(till 30 May).
Great Britain takes control of Iraq and are reinforced by the arrival of 21st Indian Division at Basra.

10 May 1941,

General Draja Mihailowitsj, leader of the Chetniks, begin his
organized resistance against the Germans in Rawna Gora.
Rudolf Hess parachutes from a Messerschmit-110, after 1200 km into Scotland on a "peace mission".Rudolf Hess, deputy leader of the Nazi Party and long-standing confidant of Adolf Hitler,
undertakes an extraordinary flight to Scotland in an attempt to make contact
with the Duke of Hamilton, a friend from a meeting at the pre-war Olympics.
Hess appears to believe that there exists an anti-Churchill, anti-Communist caucus
in Great Britain which would work with Germany. The mission is quickly disowned by the German hierarchy.

German bombers assault London in what tums out to be the final heavy mission of the Battle of Britain.
More than 500 aircraft drop high­explosive and incendiary bombs which result in many fires
and cause more than 3,000 casualties induding many dead. Some 27 German aircraft are lost.
In the preceding ten months approximately 50.000 metric tons of bombs
have been dropped on the UK, but the Battle of Britain has heen lost, and with it has gone
Germany's chance of winning the war. Partly because of their lack of long-range fighters and heavy bombers,
but also because of the eventual mastery of the RAF fighter squadrons and their tactics,
the Germans will regard this as first significant turning­point in World War Two.

15 May 1941,

British planned some attacks in the desert (N-Africa) against the
Africa Corps (Rommel), but failed it was a great loss of material
and soldiers: Operations "Tiger","Brevity",
"Battle-Axe" and "Crusader".

Duke Amadeo of Aosta, Governor of Italian East Africa,
Commander in Chief of the Italian Armies in Eritea and Ethiopia
surrenders forces under his command to the British Army at Amba
Alagi, Ethiopia.

18 May 1941,

Admiral Lutjens sails the battleship Bismarck from Gdynia in consort with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen.
Two supply ships and 5 tankers are stationed in Atlantic, and scouting ships are sent out
in advance of the main vessels to search for suitable prey.The Kingdom of Croatia is created under Italian Prince from part of Yugoslavia.

"Operation Merkur": German troops invade the British-held island of Crete.
The full German assault on Crete commences with air attacks followed by
paratroops dropped on the four airfields. They suffer heavy losses. Some 23.000 troops
and 600 aircraft are deployed. The British and Greek forces are short of equipment and
firepower but know the Germans are coming; they will outnumber them considerably.
The Mediterranean fleet is offshore preventing any German arrivals by sea. The German side
of the mission begins well but is then hit by delays in the flights of the aircraft bringing more troops,
by heavy ground fire against those who do land and loss of communication between many
of the constituent parts of the invasion. Towards the end of the day, the withdrawal of New Zealand
units from Maleme airfield gives the Germans an unexpected foothold.

Walter Schellenberg of the RSHA tells the German
military commander in France that further Jewish
emigration should be prevented in view of
transportation problems and the fact that a "Final
Solution [Endloesung] of the Jewish question" is
foreseeable.

21 May 1941,

In Crete the Germans develop their position at Maleme, enabling troops to be flown in.

24 May 1941,

The German battleship Bismarck sunk the British Royal
Navy battle cruiser HMS Hood.

A flying-boat locates Battleship 'Bismarck' on his way to Brest. Force-H and the aircraft from Ark Royal,
have the best chance of preventing the Bismarck from reaching that port. However in bad weather these
aircraft first attack the cruiser HMS Sheffield in error, but later a flight of Swordfish score 2 hits on
the 'Bismarck', which affect her steering gear and bring her almost to a stop. Further attacks that night
by torpedo and from the British battleships finished the job.

The carrier HMS Ark Royal and some of her Swordfish torpedo planes....

British forces surrender the island of Crete. About 18.000 Allied troops have been taken off the beaches, but 17.000 men were taken prisoner; the Germans record 7,000 casualties including many dead. The cruiser HMS Calcutta is sunk while assisting the Crete evacuation. It has proved a hollow victory; its significance in the overall war plan is minimal and it turns Hitler against large-scale airborne actions which could have helped his cause in other theatres.
In Irac, the British enter Baghdad.

4 June 1941,

Kaiser William II dies in exile at Doorn, The Netherlands.

8 June 1941,

(till 12 July). British and Free-French troops invade Libanon and Syria
(both from Vichy, government Petain), leaders are General Maitland,
Wilson and Catroux.

14 June 1941,

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt order all German assets
frozen. The Department of States also closes all German consul and
propaganda offices in the United States.

15 June 1941,

Operation Battleaxe fails to relieve Tobruk.

21 June 1941,

Damascus, Syria is captured by British and Free-French troops.
Hitler convinces Mussolini to allow Rommel to invade Egypt and set aside
the invasion of Malta, named "Operation Hercules". Mussolini accepts the proposal after heavy consideration.
Malta was a strategic point for British convoys which supplied
Commonwealth forces in Africa. The invasion of Malta would take form in the landing of three Italian parachute battalions and one German
parachute division and bombarded by both Italian and German aircraft. After the capture of Malta, Rommel would drive the Axis forces into Egypt.

22 June 1941,

Operation "Barbarossa": Germany declares war on and begins (3.15u) an invasion
of the Soviet Union. The Eastern Front quickly becomes
2.000-miles wide. Italy (60.000 men to Ukraine), Finland, and Romania also joined the German battle against the
Soviet Union and declare war.

At a meeting in Berlin, Himmer reveals the plan for
the Final Solution to his subordinate, Höss, and puts
him in charge of developing a large-scale killing
center at Auschwitz.

21 July 1941,

First Air attack (200 bombers) by the Luftwaffe on Moskow.

24 July,

The Japanese occupy French Indo-China with the consent of
the Vichy French Government.

26 July 1941,

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders all Japanese
assets frozen. He also orders the suspension of all trade with Japan and
lay an embargo on oil, give rise to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

31 July 1941,

Göring's orders Heydrich to "evacuate" all European jews;
The formal order for the planning of a coordinated
Final Solution of the Jewish problem throughout
Nazi-occupied Europe, already drafted by Eichmann,
is signed by Goering.Eichmann, Adolf (1906-1962)
Eichman joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and served as a guard in the Dachau concentration camp for two years.
With the union of Germany and Austria in 1938 and the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939,
Eichmann was in charge of Jewish emigration. In 1941 he became head of the Gestapo Department and
was responsible for 'the final solution'. He was interned by US troops in 1945 pending trial
as a war criminal, but escaped to South America. Israeli agents located him in Argentina in
the 1960s and he was tried in Jerusalem and hanged in May 1962.

The British CAM ships claim their first success when a Hurricane from HMS Maplin shot down
an Fw 200 Kondor in the North Atlantic.
Such aircraft would normally try to make for land after a flight,
but could go alongside the mother vessel and be hoisted aboard.
A CAM ship
A CAM ship was a WW II-era British merchant ship used in convoys as a cheap solution to the shortage of
escort-carriers. "CAM" was an acronym for "catapult aircraft merchantman" and a CAM ship
was equipped with a single, catapult-launched Hawker Sea Hurricane, named a "Hurricat".
The ship, however, was not fitted for landings so the pilot would ditch in the sea at the end
of the flight and the plane would be lost. The main purpose of CAM ships was to counter the long
range reconnaissance flights mounted by the Germans to shadow the convoys.

6 August 1941,

American and British governments warn Japan not to invade
Siam (Thailand).

9 August 1941,

(till 13 August). U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill meet at Placentia Bay, off the coast of
Newfoundland, and sign the Atlantic Charter, a document outlining the
Allied war aims.The Origin of the "United Nations" come into.

(and 8 September).The first British raid on Berlin, 1700 km.
In the early years of the war, bombing Germany was the only means of striking directly at the enemy's homeland and war production.
Plans for a major bombing offensive, known as the strategic air offensive, were ambitious, but limited by technical difficulties
in the early stages.

8 September 1941,

German forces encircle Leningrad, the Soviet Union
and take the 90-day offensive against the city.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a
shoot-on-sight order against all German and Italian shipping.

16 September 1941,

Riza Khan is forced to abdicate the Persian throne.
British and Soviet forces jointly occupy the country.

18 September 1941,

Japanese Commander order for preperation of actions in the Pacific.

19 September 1941,

German forces capture Kiev, after six weeks of fighting, the capital of the Soviet
Ukraine. German High Command releases 650.000 russian soldiers prisoners of war have been taken, 884 tanks and 3.718 guns.
Soviet loss of life reached half a million, Germany lost 100.000 men.
"Grossaktion" in Kiev: Wehrmacht kills 52.000 men and women,
34.000 are jews.
"Einsatzgruppen" im Osten kills ca. 1.000.000 people (September,
October and November).

A German U-boat, U-552 (Type VIIC, the "Red Devil" boat) commanded by Erich Topp, accidently sank the first WW II U.S. warship to
be lost in war, the Navy destroyer Reuben James. Over 100 U.S. sailors were killed.

Begin of the furious battle between the "Chetniks" of Mihailowitsj
and the partisans of Tito. Tito was the Communist partisan leader of Yugoslavia and later the President.

7 November 1941,

The greatest combine British Air-Operation, during WW II, 387
Bombers on there way to different targets at the other side of
the North Sea, also to Berlin ( 1700 km): Whitleys, Wellingtons, Stirlings,
Halifaxs.

12 November 1941,

The Germans have a numerical superiority, in respect of tank strength, over the Allies in North Africa.
After a day of heavy fighting around Sidi Rezegh, the 4th, 7th and 22nd Armoured
Brigades coming out of the confrontations badly. New Zealand troops have joined the Allies in the
area, as part of XIII Corps.

14 November 1941,

U-boat 81 sunk Britisch carier "Ark Royal" near Gibraltar.
U.S. and Japanese (Koeroesoe and Nomoera) representative begin talks in
Washington, D.C., to try to ease tensions between the two countries.

(till 30 December 1941). British troops (Claude Auchinleck) launch an
offensive (Operation Crusader relieves Tobruk) in Libya, Africa (Bardia-El-Agheila).Operation Crusader
Code name for British offensive in North Africa that pushed German General Erwin Rommel back to El Agheila in Libya, where he had begun his African offensive a year earlier.
Operation `Crusader', a new British strategy in North Africa, is begun in heavy rain with a move by XXX Corps from Egypt into Libya. The Allied forces, now commanded by General Cunningham and designated Eighth Army, have nearly 600 cruiser and light tanks plus those held within Tobruk. At this time the Germans are believed to have some 400 tanks though the majority are of Italian or older German design. The Allies can claim three times the number of German aircraft in he region. The Allies are aware of an imminent German attack, Rommel is planning for 21 November even though convoys of German supplies have not got through for some weeks, and their early move catches the Desert Fox by surprise; he is on the way back from a meeting in Rome. Haste means that the Allied plan is not as well thought through as it could have been, but this first day sees them advance unchallenged to Gabr Saleh.

Comparative strenght of German and Russian Airforce
at 1 Decembre.

Germany

Sowjet Union

North:

Fighters

100

105

Combat Fighters

150

80

Middle:

Fighters

160

88

Combat Fighters

330

67

South:

Fighters

100

252

Combat Fighters

210

192

Total

1050

784

18 November 1941,

The Japanese submarine fleet becomes active, a force of eleven boats moving into the Hawaii and other Pacific areas.

22 November 1941,

The successful German raider Atlantis is sunk by the cruiser German raider HMS Devonshire off the coast
of West Africa. The Royal Navy is increasingly effective in its pursuit of German shipping because of
improved code-breaking techniques.

Faced with the imbalance of convoy performance in the Mediterranean, Hitler orders Kesselring's Luftflotte 2 from the Eastern Front to that region. He has also agreed that the drive on Moscow be halted and that the forces there regroup and await reinforcements of men and equipment.

6 December 1941,

(till 31 January). Soviet troops counter-attack at the whole front.
Radio Moskow: Moskow would be defend till the last man died.
Along the full length of the Moscow sector the Soviets mount significant counter-attacks against the stalled German formations. These plans are led by their creator, Marshal Zhukov, who believes that he can cut through and isolate many of the German divisions. The Soviets have troops fresh to the battlefield and can boast some new tanks; the Germans are tired, frozen, ill-equipped and poorly fed. Furthermore, their once superior air power has evaporated, the winter weather having removed many aircraft from active service.

The lead ship is a Independence class CVL followed by a Essex Class CV with
some US Battleships behind it.

7 December 1941,

Japanese aircraft launch a surprise attack on American
naval forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Imperial Government of
Japan declares war to Britain, Canada, Australia and the United States.
Losses United States: 8 American battleships, 3 Cruisers and 3 Destroyers
destroyed; 2344 killed, 876 wounded, 966 missing.
1 O'clock: Koeroesoe and Nomoera ask for a conversation with Cordell Hull.

Comparative strength in the Pacific at the begin of the War.

Japan

Britain/Netherlands/United States

Battleships

10

16

Carriers

11

6

Cruisers

41

37

Destroyers

129

93

Sub-marine

67

70

Planes

ca.4300

ca.100

Army units

51 inf.div., 1 cav.br.

ca.12-14 div.

The D3A Val was Japanese main dive bomber of the war.
The carrier-based aircraft had a major role in the Pearl Harbor attack on 7 December 1941
and in the subsequent Japanese carrier operations in the Pacific and the Indian ocean.
The Val was the latest in a long line of Aichi dive bombers based a the German Heinkel (He.111) designs.
Up to 8821bs of bombs could be carried externally and the Val had two forward-firing 7.7mm machine guns.

Japanese destroyed half of the aircrafts of Clark Field Navy Base, south of Manila on the Philippines, 25 B17's-bombers and their
fighters were destroyed. A substantial part of the defending American air force on the ground was destroyed.

10 December 1941,

Japanese aircraft sink the British Royal Navy ships
Prince of Wales and Repulse off the coast of Malaya. Japanese troops
landed at Luzon (The Philippines).

Convoy HG-76 sails from Gibraltar to the UK, covered by the carrier HMS Audacity and twelve other escorts.
The group will be attacked by 12 U-boats but will sink 5 and bring down 2 German bombers; the carrier, a destroyer
and 2 of the merchantmen will be lost.

(till 14 january 1942).Conference of Washington (Arcade),
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill meet in Washington, D.C.
Japanese troops land on Mindano and Wake island. Wake island is bombed from the air, a invasion mounted.
About 200 men get ashore and after heavy fight with the garrison, they secure a surrender.

24 December 1941,

Japanese troops land in the Philippines near Luzon with about 7.000 men.
MacArthur formed his troops in defensive lines to the north, but knew reinforcements will not arrive in time.